Samsung are reportedly working on a new smart speaker that is set to rival the likes of the Amazon Echo as well as others. Talk about jumping on the bandwagon!
It seems these plans are far from ironed out, however, if we remember that Samsung have been unable to get their own smart assistant Bixby ready for the Galaxy S8 after launching the device only a few months ago because it’s English was not so good….
Reports also claim that the speaker, which has been codenamed “Vega”, has a lot of features that still need to be finessed.
Apple was the latest company to enter the race for the best smart home assistant, teasing their HomePod at its latest developer conference but at a retail price of $349, its unlikely that it will stand in the same market as the likes of the Amazon Echo Dot ($49) and Google’s Home smart speaker ($129).
Even though they’re the last to join the race, this means that Samsung could position themselves in the market quite well, depending on what they achieve. What they need to bear in mind is that the main consideration for users is how well the smart speaker functions with their smartphone. Google has an advantage with its Android ecosystem, with the Pixel being the only device it maintains complete control over. If Samsung manages to begin with this in mind before introducing notification systems and handover capabilities between its “Vega” speaker and its latest smartphones it will stand a good chance of taking the lead.